Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Caulfield and Michael Fabricant

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

2. What recent steps she has taken to help prepare for a future pandemic.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

Lessons from covid-19 have been incorporated into our planning for any future pandemics across a range of areas. That includes the need to prepare for infections through all five routes of transmission, and for the health and social care sectors to have flexible capabilities that can adapt to a range of health threats.

[Michael Fabricant]

My hon. Friend may have heard that news is emerging from China of yet another respiratory disease spreading through that country. What mechanisms are in place to learn from the covid inquiry when it finishes its work, so that if mistakes were made, we do not make them again in the event that, God forbid, we have another pandemic?

[Maria Caulfield]

First, early indications show that the respiratory illnesses in China are likely to be due to increasing levels of endemic infection. These are normal infections but at a higher level.

Secondly, we are not waiting for the covid inquiry before we implement lessons learned. One of the key changes we have already made is the introduction of the UK Health Security Agency, which carries out surveillance on both national and international threats. A good example of its work is last year’s strep A outbreak, which it managed and contained very well. This year, the identification of a new covid variant—not a variant of concern—meant we brought forward our autumn vaccination roll-out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Caulfield and Michael Fabricant

Wednesday 26th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

She says she has; I hope she has. The plan focuses on driving down inequalities in both maternal and neonatal care, and it would be great if we could have cross-party support for this groundbreaking work.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

Strep A Treatments: Supply

Debate between Maria Caulfield and Michael Fabricant

Monday 19th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

I reassure the hon. Lady that we have not waited to act. We have already issued serious shortage protocols, which are routine mechanisms when there is pressure on supplies. We have the stock of antibiotics in the country—as I outlined in my opening remarks, it is about supply issues. We are seeing five to six times the amount of antibiotics being prescribed at the moment. That is because the UK Health Security Agency has issued guidance to GPs, A&Es and healthcare professionals to lower the threshold of when they would normally give antibiotics. We are seeing significantly increased use of antibiotics. That is in addition to the prophylactic use of antibiotics by directors of public health, if they have had an outbreak locally. That is why we issued the initial SSPs already a couple of weeks ago so that pharmacists had flexibility in how they dispensed that medication. It is why on Friday we issued the new SSPs, which allow amoxicillin, clarithromycin, flucloxacillin, cefalexin, co-amoxiclav and erythromycin to be issued instead, if pharmacists do not have Penicillin V on their shelves. We are being as flexible as possible to give pharmacists that scope.

We are monitoring this issue on a daily basis. May I reassure people that while these are higher than usual incidences for this time of year, overall for this season we are not yet at the 2017, 2018 levels, where we had a significantly higher number of deaths? Strep A occurs not just in—[Interruption.] Hon. Members do not want to listen. I think I have said enough.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

I am pleased to hear that there are adequate supplies of penicillin and amoxicillin. My hon. Friend will be aware that some tetracyclines are less effective with certain ethnic groups. She is right in saying, is she not, that most strep A infections are not serious. Does she agree that we should be encouraging parents to give their children flu vaccinations? Usually, serious streptococcal infections occur when someone has been run down through a viral infection first.

[Maria Caulfield]

My hon. Friend is right to advise people to take their flu vaccination. What I was trying to say, but the Opposition did not really want to hear, was that strep A occurs in all age groups. Actually, the highest number of deaths we see are in over-65s. It is important to get the message out that this issue does not just affect children. My hon. Friend is right. The flu vaccine is something that should always be recommended for winter. He is also right that the alternative antibiotics that I read out have been recommended by UKHSA, and we have taken its clinical advice.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maria Caulfield and Michael Fabricant

Tuesday 14th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

9. If he will take steps to help ensure access to medicinal cannabis for NHS patients.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

On 1 November 2018 this Government changed the law to allow the prescription of cannabis-based products for medicinal use by a specialist when clinically appropriate. Licensed cannabis-based medicines such as Sativex and Epidiolex are routinely available on the NHS.

[Michael Fabricant]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer, particularly as she mentioned 2018, because it was of course her boss, the Secretary of State for Health, who was the pioneer in all this when he was Home Secretary. But there is a “but” coming, and it is that young children are not getting this vital medicine on the NHS. Some are having to pay £2,000 a month, and in the last three years only three prescriptions have been issued on the NHS. How can we improve the situation?